On a pop music player and some quotes
It’s kind of strange to see pop music players getting older because we tend to to think of pop as an experience of youth both as performers and audience. But I still like pop, and some performers of it like Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen have kept it up until later age.
This is from a The Irish Times about the guitarist/singer Johnny Marr, who is probably best known for being the lead guitarist for The Smiths in the 1980s, which was one of the most popular bands for depressed and sensitive teenagers at the time:
“Johnny Marr, still as thin as a whippet, is holding solitary court in his spartan, white-walled studios ‘sitll on the outskirts of Manchester, a big old factory built in about 1885. I’m on the top floor.’
Marr has been on the top floor of many things for decades. Now a ridiculously sprightly 58 years of age (being vegan from the 1990s, abstaining from alcohol and cigarettes and being an avid daily runner are likely to be contributing factors), he is about to release his first double album, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4. He pre-empts any questions about streaming and attention deficit spans by immediately saying that the hurry-up approach to music is unsatisfactory. ‘That said, back in 1979 when I was 15,” he says with a grin, “if someone told me I could just put my hand in my pocket and summon the latest song I was besotted with into my ears, then I would have said ‘Sign me up for the time machine.’ ”
Just a thought. I don’t understand music but like to listen to it. I think The Smiths came together with Marr’s and the others’ music and Morrisey’s lyrics and voice for a two-year golden period.
On regret:
“Regret what I did, regret you?
I couldn’t go on.” –Hall and Oates, “Kiss is on my List.”
“Never apologize.” –an early boss
“No regrets.” –an old boss
“You did what you did.” –another later boss
“You can’t un-ring that bell.” –a doctor